Home

In the News

Officers

Contact Us

Donate

County Coordinators

Get Petitions

Church Info

Petition Drive Supporters

Action Items

FAQ's

Position Papers

Gary Glenn, President

American Family Association of Michigan

Gary Glenn, 47, has been president of the American Family Association of Michigan since October 1, 1999.  Under his leadership, AFA-Michigan has become an activist, high-profile voice for traditional family values in Michigan and nationally on such issues as Internet pornography and the homosexual agenda, including prominent leadership in Michigan 's approval of a Marriage Protection Amendment to the state constitution in 2004.

AFA-Michigan’s activities under his direction have been reported by the BBC, New York Times, Asia Times, CNN, MSNBC, USA Today, Fox News, Associated Press, Washington Post, Washington Times, Boston Globe, Chronicle of Higher Education, Tech Law Journal, Newark Star-Ledger, Arizona Star, Citizen magazine, the Ananda Lewis Show, and hundreds of television, radio, and newspaper stories inside Michigan.

Before assuming leadership of AFA-Michigan, Glenn served briefly as director of the School Choice Project for Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy, immediately following fifteen months as president of School Choice YES!, a ballot campaign committee that promoted the Mackinac Center’s “Universal Tuition Tax Credit” as an amendment to Michigan’s constitution.  As president of School Choice YES!, Glenn addressed the Council on National Policy’s Chicago meeting in 1999.  He also won the first-ever endorsement of a School Choice proposal by the president of a major national African-American religious denomination, plus the endorsement of the president of Michigan’s largest African-American denomination, plus the support of 72 percent of all Republican candidates for state or federal office in Michigan in 1998. 

He is a native of North Carolina, where he was an Eagle Scout at age 13, captain of his high school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes and 1976 FCA Athlete of the Year.  His senior year, despite a threat of suspension, he skipped class to attend a campaign rally for Gov. Ronald Reagan in the 1976 North Carolina GOP presidential primary.  He is a graduate of Lenoir-Rhyne College , Hickory , N.C. , where he graduated with honors in political science, was the winner of LRC’s 1982 Political Science Award and was a 1978 state semi-finalist for the Harry S. Truman Memorial Scholarship.  He also represented LRC as a member of the North Carolina Student Legislature and the Model United Nations.  During college, he served as an intern for both U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and former Congressman James T. Broyhill, R-N.C.  He was also a member of the College Republicans, the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, the Political Science Club, and played intercollegiate and intramural sports.

After graduating from Morton Blackwell’s Committee for Responsible Youth Politics (now The Leadership Institute) campaign school in 1978, he served two years on staff -- followed by six years as executive director -- of the Idaho Freedom to Work Committee, where he led the successful legislative and ballot campaign to make Idaho the nation’s 21st Right to Work state, outlawing compulsory union membership or dues payment as a condition of employment.  As chairman and treasurer of the related Employee Rights Campaign Committee, he managed or directed managers of dozens of state legislative races, culminating in 1984 in the election of a veto-proof legislative majority for Right to Work.  Boise magazine wrote: “At 32 years of age, with over 10 years of political experience already under his belt, he has probably helped elect more people to the Legislature than anyone else.”

For his leadership in the nation’s only successful Right to Work ballot measure at that time since 1958, Idaho’s Center for the Study of Market Alternatives (president: Lawrence Reed, now of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy) named Glenn and Hollywood icon Charlton Heston co-recipients of its 1987 Freedom Fighter of the Year award.  In 1983, he was a Capitol Hill lobbyist for the National Right to Work Committee.  In the 70’s and 80’s, he also worked for Right to Work organizations in Delaware, New Hampshire, and New Mexico, and in 1985 led a team of operatives in a 10-day blitz that saved Louisiana’s Right to Work law from repeal.

Beginning in 1988, he served almost three years as executive vice president of the Idaho Cattlemen’s Association, where he founded the state’s first agriculture-related political action committee, dramatically increased ICA ’s media profile, and generated a 40 percent growth in membership.  He was credited by former U.S. Sen. James McClure, R-Idaho, with defeating the 2 million-acre Andrus-McClure wilderness proposal, and he personally negotiated with the Idaho Association of Counties the first rewrite of Idaho ’s herd district law in over 100 years, winning the support of local government officials and cattlemen who had been at odds over the issue for decades.

GARY GLENN

Page 2

In 1990 and 1994, he was elected as a Republican county commissioner in Ada County ( Boise ), Idaho ’s most populous county.  As commissioner, he authored a healthcare reform plan which made Ada County the first county, and only the third public employer in the nation, to provide a Medical Savings Account-based insurance plan to its employees. His MSA plan was featured in coverage by the Los Angeles Times, the Seattle Times, and national healthcare industry and reform publications.  He spoke on the MSA issue before healthcare reform conferences across America, including an address to the American Legislative Exchange Council, testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives and committees of the Idaho and Ohio legislatures, and was featured in a national news conference sponsored by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and cited during U.S. Senate floor debate on the Kennedy-Kassebaum Healthcare Reform bill.  He was the first candidate for non-federal office to be endorsed by the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons PAC.  As commissioner, he was also a staunch defender of private property rights and property tax relief, being one of only three elected officials in the state to endorse Idaho ’s 1996 One Percent Property Tax Limitation Initiative.

In 1992, Commissioner Glenn was a GOP primary candidate for Congress, endorsed and/or financially supported by Rep. Dick Armey of Texas, Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana, Senator Jesse Helms and Rep. Cass Ballenger of North Carolina, the National Rifle Association, Idaho Rifle & Pistol Association, National Right to Work PAC, Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly, Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson, and in a television endorsement ad by Charlton Heston.

In 1994, Commissioner Glenn was the first elected official in Idaho to endorse a statewide ballot measure prohibiting state and local governments from granting special “protected class” status based on homosexual behavior and prohibiting public schools from promoting such behavior.  For his leadership and defense of family values, Commissioner Glenn was named a “Hometown Hero” by Dr. James Dobson’s Citizen magazine and 1994 Statesman of the Year by the Idaho Family Forum, the state affiliate of Focus on the Family.

Also in 1994, he was a founding board member of Idahoans for Term Limits, which won voter approval of a statewide ballot measure limiting the terms of federal, state, and local politicians.  In 1997, he served as a registered lobbyist before the state legislature for Idahoans for Term Limits.

He also served as chairman of Idaho ’s chapter of the National Conference of Republican County Officials, as region chairman and state executive committee member of the Idaho Republican Party, as a delegate to half a dozen state GOP conventions, and as an alternate to the 1988 Republican National Convention. 

He was recruited to move to Michigan in February 1998 to become president of School Choice YES!   He has been elected three times as a GOP precinct committeeman by Midland County primary election voters, was an alternate to the 1998 Michigan Republican state convention, and a delegate to the February 1999, May 2000, and August 2000 state conventions.

He was raised a Southern Baptist and is a member of Midland Baptist Church .  In 1998, he completed eight years as a member of the U.S. Army Reserves and Army National Guard, in which he was an honor graduate of basic and advanced individual training, a recipient of the Army Achievement Medal and the Army Commendation Medal, and an “Expert” marksman.

Gary and his wife, Annette, were married on March 4, 1983, and have five children – Heston, Harrison, Hunter, Reagan, and Jefferson.  Before leaving the political arena to raise her children, Annette served as chairman of the Boise State University College Republicans, chairman of the Idaho College Republicans and Idaho Young Americans for Freedom, national co-chairman of the College Republican National Committee, chairman of the Ada County (Idaho) Republican Central Committee, member of the Idaho Republican Party executive committee, and campaign manager for candidates for Idaho lieutenant governor, Supreme Court justice, and state senate.